After toying with changes, St. John Parish School Board voted Thursday to keep intact the makeup of a selection committee established to review proposals from firms interested in overseeing repairs and rebuilding at two schools badly damaged by floods. Thursday's vote was the latest chapter in a slow-moving process that has taken more than five months to get underway. It did not come without debate.

The 13-member selection committee includes an appointee chosen by each school board member, and was established earlier this year after the board voted in December of last year to dissolve the original five-member selection committee assembled by St. John Parish School Board Financial Director Felix Boughton and Superintendent Herbert Smith.

The committee will be charged with reviewing proposals from disaster management firms bidding for the chance to oversee reconstruction of Lake Pontchartrain Elementary School and East St. John High School, which were severely damaged by Hurricane Isaac. Eventually, the committee will make a recommendation to the board.

In addition to establishing a new selection committee, in December the board also voted to nullify the existing request for proposals and start the process over. In February, the board voted to split a $45 million contract between two firms -- a decision it subsequently reversed after learning that FEMA is less likely to participate in a cost-share agreement if the solicitation of the contract is a "request for qualifications" rather than a "request for proposals." Last month, the board decided to issue a new RFP according to FEMA guidelines.

The motion up for vote on Thursday stated that the board would utilize the 13-member selection committee it had previously established. But board member Albert Burl almost immediately proposed an amendment calling for five board members to also sit on the selection committee.

"I want to be on this committee to make sure everything is in order," Burl said. "FEMA has gone back on three of its projects. I don't want to have the school board have to pay back FEMA five years from now."

Burl vowed that even if his amendment was struck down -- which it was, by a 6-3 vote -- he would remove his appointee and sit on the committee himself instead.

Board member Rodney Nicholas supported Burl's amendment, saying that having board members present would make the process of vetting firms "more fair and equitable." Nicholas said he wasn't sure the committee is even up to the task of evaluating proposals, adding that he "isn't sure my appointee is even willing to serve on the committee. What if they have a job or something and can't serve?"

Board Member Russ Wise insisted that, because the board appointed the committee, its members should stand by their choices.

"The last thing we need to do is get politics involved in this," Wise said. "To put five (board) members on a committee that already exists that was selected by the members of this board themselves almost guarantees a political decision."

In the end, the board voted 6-3 to stick with the existing committee, without appointing any school board members.